I live in Los Angeles and I'm lucky enough to write about the thing I love most: movies. I'm a graduate of Vassar College and Northwestern University and for 15 years I worked at Forbes mostly covering the entertainment industry. Although I've moved into the world of corporate journalism, I still contribute blog posts here.

Hollywood's Most Overpaid Stars

Eddie Murphy is in desperate need of some career rehab. The Saturday Night Live alum used to be a sure thing in Hollywood. His family-friendly comedies like Dr. Doolittle and The Nutty Professor earned more than $250 million globally each and helped make Murphy one of the highest-paid stars in the industry.

But over the past few years the comedian has struggled. Two of his most recent films, Imagine That and Meet Dave, were colossal failures. Murphy was paid millions up front to star in the films, but neither one earned back its production budget at the box office. Meet Dave earned only $50 million on a budget of $60 million. Imagine That did even worse. It brought in only $22 million on a budget of $55 million.

Those disasters turned Murphy into the second most overpaid star in Hollywood by our calculations. For every $1 Murphy was paid in salary we found that his recent films have returned an average $2.70. To put that in perspective, Nicole Kidman, who ranks 10th on our overpaid list, returns $6.70 for every buck she is paid.

So it’s no surprise to see the 50-year-old Murphy in career-building mode. It helps that he has director Brett Ratner on his side. Ratner helmed Murphy’s latest film, Tower Heist, which hits theaters Friday. Murphy stars as a thief who helps Ben Stiller and a motley crew of amateurs rob a Bernie Madoff-like financier who has stolen their pension money. Early reviews have been decent. Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reportersays that “however far-fetched [the film] is all but irresistible in its criminal legitimacy and its promise of just desserts.” Exhibitor Relations expects the film will top the box office this weekend with $26 million.

If the movie is a hit, it will go a long way toward improving Murphy’s reputation and his ability to offer studios a better return on investment. Murphy is also slated to host the Oscars ceremony (which Ratner is producing) next February.

Another consolation: compared to Drew Barrymore, Murphy is a financial superstar. The actress tops our 2011 list of Hollywood’s Most Overpaid Actors, returning just 40 cents (not a misprint) for every dollar the studios spend on her. Barrymore doesn’t earn as much as someone like Murphy but her recent films have performed horribly at the box office. Her 2009 film Everybody’s Fine earned only $16 million globally and her 2007 film Lucky You brought in only $8 million. He’s Just Not That Into You, which Barrymore produced and appeared in, did better earning $180 million globally but we didn’t count it because Barrymore wasn’t really the star of the film.

To create our list we looked at the 40 highest-earning actors in Hollywood. To qualify, each had to have starred in at least three movies in the past five years that opened in more than 500 theaters. Movies that opened after May 1 of this year were not counted.

We also didn’t look at animated films because the stars aren’t really the draw. So Murphy doesn’t get credit for the Shrek movies where he voiced Donkey. Those films have brought in a total $3 billion at the global box office.

We used data gathered for our annual Celebrity 100 list to calculate each star’s estimated earnings on each film (including up-front pay and any earnings from the movie’s box-office receipts and first year sales of DVDs). We then looked at each movie’s estimated budget (not including marketing costs, which are susceptible to accounting chicanery) and box-office and DVD earnings to figure out an operating income for each film.

We added up each star’s compensation on his or her last three films and the operating income on those films, and divided total operating income by the star’s total compensation to come up with a return-on-investment number. The final number represents an average of how much a studio earns for every dollar paid.

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You make a good point. Movie making is tricky business. a dozen things can go wrong along the way to make a good-looking project turn into a flop and it’s not always the star’s fault.

That’s why we look at each star’s last three movies and take an average. Yes, sometimes an actor can have such a bad flop that it drags down his whole average. But by that same logic, an actor can have such a massive hit that it pulls up his average.

And even when an actor is hurt by a flop, he’ll only end up on our most over paid list (as opposed to being outside of the range) if he’s been paid too much in other movies that haven’t been huge hits.

Can I ask you if you know how much Nicole Kidman has been paid for her latest 3 movies? For example, she hasn’t been paid for Rabbit Hole and I heard she’s been paid “just” 5 millions for Nine, Just Go With It. Her Trespass salary is uknown. Actually, any of her salary since Australia has been comunicated by studios “officially”.

So, can I ask upon what Forbes make calculations? She’s in this list since 2008, sometimes I think just because it’s fashion.

I can’t reveal our estimate for individual films. Those are based on confidential conversation and a big reason people are willing to divulge the information for the Celebrity 100 is that we only print a total earnings number, we don’t break it down.

Having said that, we actually didn’t count any of the Kidman movies you mentioned above. Qualifying movies had to have opened in more than 500 theaters (so there goes Rabbit Hole) and the person needs to have starred in the film. Just Go With It was basically a cameo and Nine was an ensemble piece.

Movies that are 3-4 years old? Sorry but I don’t really get it. I don’t see the point to put Nicole in this list for movies that are so old. It sounds more like a “personal” dislike towards her. (in The Golden Compass she was supporting, she wasn’t the protagonist, you should remove the movie from your valuation, then).

Anyway, if I can express an opinion: you should comunicate your calculations because in this way people can express comments upon facts. But those are not really my business, it was just a suggestion from a reader. I think it would be more intresting and funnier.

Actors- overpaid or not – are like presidents. In the final analysis, the buck stops there. They made the choice to appear in a film, and a LOT of them have a totally “take the money and run” attitude. So, to my way of thinking, it’s only fair that they be judged by the films they choose to make. Can’t stand the heat?….stay off the red carpet! (or get out from under the klieg lights…which ever metaphor you prefer.)

They may be overpaid in your opinion , but their return on investment is better then every stockbroker in the country right now so its hard to critique them. Illogical article in its basis of profit margins and very irrelevant. Put some effort into your next article.